The First Amendment Project

(New Video, 6.14.2005)

Judging from the DVD description and cover, this collection of 3 freedom-of-speech-oriented shorts (roughly 20 minutes each) has do-gooder self-righteousness written all over it. And to be fair, there is some degree of that off-putting sensibility in The First Amendment Project. However, like most of the political documentaries out there these days, this trio of films succeeds primarily as entertainment. And if they're also somewhat informative and thought-provoking, well, that's not a bad bonus. By cloaking their arguments in an indisputable right -- freedom of speech -- these films lend credibility to political positions that aren't always so cut-and-dry. While this is a questionable tactic, those who sympathize with the filmmakers' positions should find plenty of fresh ammunition to use against their political opponents.

First up is Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob's Fox vs. Franken. This deals with Al Franken's book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" and the lawsuit it spawned from The Fox News Channel. Initially, the use of a Bill O'Reilly's picture on the cover of the book was the central issue but then Fox decided that Franken had illegally appropriated their "fair and balanced" slogan in his satirical variation, "a fair and balanced look at the right." This short offers a quick overview of an already well-known story but it's always nice to see blow-hard O'Reilly stumble and substitute "shut ups" for coherent counter-arguments. O'Reilly's dirty retaliation against the judge who dismissed Fox's case is also pretty shameless.

The second short, Poetic License, is directed by Mario Van Peebles and deals with New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka and his controversial poem "Somebody Blew Up America." This is the weakest and least focussed of the the three. Van Peebles' choice to accompany Baraka's poem reading with blue-screen imagery and Terrence Blanchard-like piano accompaniment (I like you Mario but you're not Spike Lee) doesn't work and the poem itself is more interested in grabbing your attention with provocative statements than persuasively defending those statements.

You also have to be skeptical of anyone who immediately sees parallels between Baraka's censors and the horrors of Nazi Germany. This is a tired demonizing tactic -- most recently used by Tom Cruise to discredit psychiatry -- that isn't even necessary to persuasively defend Baraka. Simply finding similarities between a Nazi and an American doesn't make the American a Nazi, does it? This is interesting and provocative material but it's not particularly level-headed or well-argued.

The final short is John Walter's Some Assembly Required, a profile of several New Yorkers who protested last summer's Republican convention in New York City. This is an interesting change of pace as it focuses more on procedure -- the procedure of protesting -- than any specific political issue. The primary focus is a member of the ACLU who follows demonstrations and reports questionable police behavior as it occurs.

During the course of this film, we see a number of excessive, unfair arrests. For example, police order a large group of people to move to a sidewalk then arrest them for being there. We also see undercover cops run protesters over on scooters and uniformed police beat non-violent demonstrators with their batons. It's a clear case of punishment for legal expression, as none of these protesters appear to be violating any laws that might otherwise earn them jail time. This short should be a helpful primer for anyone interested in doing some protest or activist work of their own.

The extras on this Docurama disc are pretty light. For Fox vs. Franken, we get a pdf of some comic strips that were intended as animated sequences but never shot. For Some Assembly Required, we get a photo gallery and a 3-minute deleted scene. This scene briefly profiles an investment banker/father-of-two who decided to get into the protest game, as a result of his outrage about the Republicans' exploitation of New York.

Extra-wise, Poetic License is the most loaded of the three. We get 5 minutes of outtakes from Van Peebles' introduction, an official statement from Baraka (included as a pdf file), and several minutes of Baraka outtakes, including his complete 12-minute reading of "Somebody Blew Up America."

In the outtakes, Baraka remembers being sentenced to 3 years in prison for "Black People," a poem he wrote in 1967. He also re-counts a notorious George W. Bush verbal mis-hap. While crusading for the pro-life movement, Bush recently argued that "the feces is a very important thing" and "the feces is nourished for nine months." That's a very provocative stance, Mr. President.

Overall, this is a lively and enjoyable plea to the converted. These shorts aren't long or dense enough to change any minds but they should certainly motivate and mobilize those who already sympathize with their left-leaning views. -- Jonathan Doyle